The league's leading scorer delivered his sixth 50-point performance of the 2018-19 season and finishes the month of February averaging 37.2 points per game.

By Gilbert McGregor

The league's scoring leader is back at it again.

With a 58-point performance in the Rockets 121-118 over the Heat, James Harden finishes the month of February averaging 37.6 points per game. It is his sixth 50-point game of the season and his first since his 61-point outburst at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 23.

Harden's scoring average is a league-high 36.2 points per game; The next closest scorer is Paul George (28.6 ppg), who is averaging 7.6 fewer points than Harden.

Despite his scoring exploits in the month of February, it lands as his second-highest scoring month this season; the reigning MVP averaged 43.6 points per game in the month of January thanks to three 50-point games.

In Thursday night's win over Miami, Harden's 58 points came efficiently - he was 16-for-32 (50 percent) from the field, 8-for-18 from distance (44.4 percent) and 18-for-18 from the charity stripe.

Every point was needed, too. Houston entered the fourth quarter trailing Miami by 12 points, but a 17 point quarter from Harden fuelled the Rockets to a 35-20 advantage in the final frame.

Harden was money in the fourth, shooting 5-for-9 from the field and knocking down all six of his free throw attempts.

His shooting splits are even more impressive as he played just under 36 minutes in a narrow win over Charlotte Wednesday. Of his six 50-point performances in the 2018-19 season, it is just the second to come on the back end of a back-to-back.

It wasn't just scoring tonight, either.

The All-Star guard finished with 10 assists and seven rebounds making tonight the seventh game with at least 50 points and 10 assists in his 10-year career. As noted by ESPN's Tim MacMahon, no other player in NBA history has recorded more than three such games

The Rockets (37-25) have now won four consecutive games and look to continue to rise in the Western Conference standings; as the No. 5 seed in the West, they trail both the Trail Blazers and Thunder in the standings by 1.5 games.

Harden and the Rockets are back in action on Sunday afternoon as they travel to Boston to take on the Celtics.